Lawsuit: MIT Failed to Take Action Against Antisemitism

A lawsuit filed on March 7 alleges that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) failed to properly enforce their policies against antisemitic incidents on campus, particularly regarding pro-Palestinian protests.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the StandWithUs Center for Legal Justice (SCLJ) and two Jewish students. On Oct. 8, two Palestinian student groups — MIT Coalition Against Apartheid (CAA) and Palestine@MIT — were among the groups who signed onto a joint statement that was emailed to all undergraduate students through MIT’s email platform blaming “the Israeli regime” for the “unfolding violence” and condemned “the Israeli occupation” and “its racist apartheid system.” The statement contended that “colonization is inherently violent, aimed at erasing and replacing indigenous peoples … We affirm the right of all occupied peoples to resist oppression and colonization.”

Another mass email from MIT CAA was sent out to students on Oct. 17 claiming that Israel bombed the Al Ahli Baptist Hospital in the Gaza Strip; Jewish students who replied by citing subsequent reports that the hospital was actually hit with a failed rocket launched by Palestinian Islamic Jihad “were attacked online by their peers,” the lawsuit alleges. “One student encountered such a hostile environment in [their] study group that they felt they could no longer participate.”

Further, the Oct. 17 email invited students to a pro-Palestinian rally on campus two days later, where “Jewish and Israeli students were harassed and assaulted,” the lawsuit claims. One of the student plaintiffs, Marilyn Meyers, alleges in the lawsuit that one of the protesters at the rally “raised the front wheels of his bike” at Meyers and her friend — who is also a Jewish student on campus — and said to them, “Your ancestors [referring to Holocaust victims] didn’t die to kill more people.”

The lawsuit proceeds to highlight other instances of MIT CAA protests in which they disrupted classes, held a “die-in” in Lobby 7 — an unauthorized protest area, per the lawsuit — and targeted “the offices of Jewish professors and the office of MIT’s Israeli internship program.” One of the targeted professor described the protesters as rattling “the door handles of offices that were closed with staff inside” and chanting anti-Israel slogans outside of these offices, per the lawsuit. “After the incident, many staff reported feeling alarmed, intimidated and even afraid during the protest,” the lawsuit states. “Some staff members said they felt trapped in their offices, anxious about the prospect of verbal and/or physical assault. There were, however, no repercussions for this incident and MIT did not send police.”

Additionally, MIT CAA invited the general public to attend their on-campus protest (co-hosted with the MIT Coalition for Palestine student group) on Nov. 9 in Lobby 7, prompting the university to warn students to stay away from the area. But avoiding Lobby 7 is “difficult” because it “is a central thoroughfare on campus.” The lawsuit cited a post on X from Professor Retsef Levi who described the protest that day as a “blockade” preventing students from attending classes, and that many protesters refused to leave despite university administrators threatening to suspend the students involved. The lawsuit also alleges that a Jewish student “was shoved by a protester” after attempting to record it on her phone. But MIT ultimately did not suspend the student protesters because it could put their student visas at risk; the lawsuit claims that no “disciplinary measures” were taken against the protesters. At a subsequent protest in Lobby 7, the lawsuit claims an MIT CAA leader celebrated that they “stood up to one of the most powerful institutions in the world and got THEM to back down!”

During one of the Lobby 7 protests, plaintiff Katerina Boukin (a Jewish Israeli student) claims that she “and other students were surrounded by MIT CAA members and other students shouting ‘from the river to the sea,’ which Plaintiff Boukin understood to be calling for the elimination of Israel. For Plaintiff Boukin, this was reminiscent of other periods in history, including Kristallnacht.”

The lawsuit also alleges that the university has applied a double-standard to how it enforces its policies regarding campus speakers. The lawsuit cites a December event co-hosted by the MIT CAA and Coalition for Palestine that featured Miko Peled, who allegedly “encouraged his audience to go to MIT Hillel and confront MIT’s Jewish students there about Gaza. Peled also openly denied many of the atrocities of the October 7 attacks. And during the speech, Peled made a joke about not being able to say, ‘From the River to the Sea,’ students laughed and some began chanting the phrase.”  The lawsuit noted that in 2021, the university canceled a speech by geophysicist Doran Abbott because he criticized “certain aspects of affirmative action and diversity programs.” The university has since revised its policies on free speech, but the revised policies still provide the university leeway to regulate speech to ensure that it doesn’t impede “the essential activities of the Institute” and that those protesting a particular speaker can’t stop “such speakers from expressing their views … MIT has the tools both under law and through its own policies to stop the harassment and discrimination against Jewish and Israeli students, but MIT has failed to use its authority to do this,” the lawsuit contends.

Further, the university has allegedly “asked and/or forced” Jewish and Israeli students to remove their Israeli flags from campus, whereas that same standard has not been applied to Palestinian flags.

Meyers, the lawsuit claims, was told by the university that they couldn’t take action against those who subjected her to antisemitic comments because “she was not a member of a protected class” and that it’s not within the purview of the university. The lawsuit also documents claims from anonymous Jewish students claiming that they no longer feel safe on campus, including one student who left her quality exam study group after she was told “that the victims of the October 7, 2023 Nova music festival massacre in Israel deserved to die.”

[A Jewish student] was told by the university that they couldn’t take action against those who subjected her to antisemitic comments because “she was not a member of a protected class” and that it’s not within the purview of the university.

Although MIT is a private institution, it still receives federal funding and is thus subject to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, the lawsuit argues; it also requests an injunction mandating the university to properly enforce its policies to ameliorate the hostile campus environment against Jewish students.

“Plaintiffs allege that MIT’s administration has evaded accountability and continues to support antisemitism on its campus, with little to no repercussions for students violating campus policies,” SCLJ Director Yael Lerman said in a statement. “Today we are joining with two courageous Jewish students who will not stay silent while MIT discriminates against them in violation of federal law. And we are grateful to the team of lawyers that is helping us pursue justice for Jewish students at MIT.”

A university spokesperson said in a statement to the Journal, “We have not been served with the complaint and MIT does not, as a typical practice, comment on pending litigation. Generally, we’d note MIT has established processes in place to address concerns of discrimination and harassment.”